


The Nose Knows

by Haberdasher



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen, Mistaken Identity, Secret Identity, Superpowers, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:29:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29908044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: Best Revenge AU (superhero AU + Angie and the Gucks); Bethany makes some unexpected discoveries regarding her civilian coworker Angie.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 5





	The Nose Knows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HeidiMelone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeidiMelone/gifts).



While few visits to the hospital were happy ones, especially for masks like Bethany for whom bodily injury was simply part of the trade, she was actually looking forward to this one.

Her coworker from her civilian job at the zoo, a nice woman named Angie, had just had a baby, and Bethany was glad to be there to support her however she could, especially since the road had been a bit of a rocky one for poor Angie lately. (Bethany was pretty sure she didn’t know the whole story, and pretty sure that she didn’t _want_ to know the whole story either, but between a bitter divorce and getting pregnant not long after meeting her new beau, Angie deserved a minute to just breathe, to appreciate what she had now rather than what she’d lost.)

As Bethany approached Angie’s hospital room, though, her superpowered nose kicked in to make her aware of a few familiar scents along the way. She could smell Angie, of course, and what must be her newborn baby as well, but also...

Was that Bethany’s coworker she smelled there? And- and the other person in there, was that _Undertow_ , one of the supervillains she’d fought time and time again?

Bethany hoped she’d mistaken the scents, but they just grew stronger as she hurried her pace, clearly coming from the same area where Angie herself was.

What were a superhero and a supervillain doing in Angie’s hospital room? Were they fighting? Angie was just a civilian, she didn’t deserve to be caught in the middle of this-

Bethany’s heart was racing as she opened the door to find... not the chaos she’d expected, not a fight in the making, but Angie holding her baby with a grin on her face while two men peacefully stood by her side.

“Oh, hey, Bethany. C’mon in.” Angie said, gesturing for Bethany to come closer, which she did with only a hint of hesitation. Clearly her first impression had been mistaken here...

“This here is Lute, my brother.” Bethany took a breath in through her nose as unobtrusively as she could manage to make sure she could tell who was who. _Undertow_. Without the mask, the resemblance between the two siblings was clear enough.

“Nice to meet ya.” Bethany extended her hand, and Undertow--Lute--shook it.

“Likewise.”

“And this is Stan, I know I’ve told you about him.” And he must be the coworker she knew, then, the guy with teleportation powers; he didn’t get out on the field often or make much in the way of small talk, but he made a damn fine secretary for the heroes. He wasn’t wearing his glasses now--was that his version of masking up, then?

“Right, yes, Stan, good to, uh, meet you too.” Another handshake, firm and strong on both sides.

“I hope you’ve told her _good_ things about me, Ang.”

“I’ve told her the _truth_ , Stan, for better or for worse, so that’ll hafta do. Speaking of, Stan, Lute, Bethany works with me at the zoo. I’m glad y’all are finally meeting each other.”

“Yeah, thanks for introducing me as I... meet everybody here for the first time.” They didn’t know who she was, did they? Or... Stan should, at least, since he’d see her both masked and unmasked. But had Undertow just learned her secret identity just as she had learned his?

“Uh-huh.” Stan didn’t look as out of his depths as Bethany felt right now; she couldn’t help but envy him a bit for that.

“Well, not _everybody_. I’ve met ya before, of course. But I know who you’re _really_ here to meet, and little Junior is right here... uh, you feeling alright, Beth? You look a little pale.”

Bethany took a deep breath and tried to stop feeling like the world was crashing down around her. “Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry about it.” She inched in closer, getting a good look at the baby. “So. Junior, huh?”

.

Bethany was close enough to Angie that she figured dropping by her place--her current place, anyway, as she was pretty sure her and her boyfriend were looking to move out sooner rather than later--unannounced wouldn’t be a big deal. Work was stressing her out some, especially with hero duties on top of it all, and she could use a friendly face and someone who’d be willing to just listen as she aired out all her grievances. Plus, who could stay stressed for too long when getting to see someone’s precious baby boy?

A quick knock on the door, and Angie opened it soon enough, the smile on her face making it clear that Bethany had made the right call.

“Hey, Bethany! C’mon in.”

A sweet scent wafted in from the kitchen as Bethany stepped inside.

“Ooh, what are you baking?”

Bethany headed into the kitchen, where she wasn’t all that surprised to see that Stan was in there, helping with the baking. Part of Bethany’s mind wandered to Angie’s ex, Max--he might have just stood back and watched as Angie baked, seen baking as women’s work and thus beneath him, but Stan wasn’t like that. Though if he didn’t really need those glasses, he probably shouldn’t leave them on in the middle of such a messy activity...

“I was just helping Angie make cupcakes for the bake sale.”

“Good timing, too, we could use another taste-tester--here, try this and tell me if it’s too salty.”

Angie held out a cupcake, but before Bethany could reach it Angie slipped and the cupcake went flying, icing covering Bethany’s sweater before the cupcake hit the ground with a moist splat.

“Oh dear.”

“I am _so_ sorry! You can wash up in the bathroom if you’d like--it’s just down the hall, first door on the left.”

Bethany nodded, grateful that the sweater she had on today wasn’t one of her nicer ones--she’d known that coming to a house with an infant in it came with its fair share of messes, but a rogue cupcake wasn’t one she’d anticipated!

When she tried the first door on the left, though, it was locked.

“Occupado!” said a rough, gravelly voice that seemed oddly familiar; Bethany considered trying to sniff out the source, but there were too many smells around for her to make it out, and besides, the smell coming from the bathroom right now was a lot less sweet than that of the cupcakes baking...

“Uh, who’s using your bathroom?”

“Oh, that’s Stan.” Angie said, her voice calm. “He just got back from work, he won’t be long.”

“That’s... Stan...” Bethany looked over at the man in the kitchen who she had assumed to be Stan. “Then who’s with you in the kitchen?”

“That’s Ford, Stan’s brother. He’s been visitin’.”

“Have we met?” Ford said. “You do look awfully familiar...”

The bathroom door opened, and out emerged Stan, who indeed looked startlingly similar to the man in the kitchen, albeit sans glasses--and he _smelled_ startlingly similar, to boot. “My hands are clean now, time for that cupcake! Oh, hey Bethany, good to see ya!”

“There’s... two of ya...”

“You’ve heard of twins, right?” Stan said.

“Stan, don’t be rude!” Angie said.

“I mean, Junior gets confused, but he’s a baby...”

“Stan!” Angie fake-swatted at Stan with wooden spoon; Stan, for his part, mimed his painful and elaborate death by spoon before looking Angie’s way and grinning.

“I, uh...” Bethany struggled to get the words out as her head was spinning. “I might have misunderstood some things... care to explain while I see Junior getting confused over the twins?”

“Absolutely.” Angie said with a grin.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, consider following me on tumblr at [haberdashing](https://haberdashing.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
